Quick time wipe-off for parking meters

ABSTRACT

A QUICK TIME WIPE-OFF ASSEMBLY FOR A COIN CONTROLLED, PARKING METER INCLUDING AN ESCAPEMENT WHEEL AXIALLY SLIDABLE ON A SHAFT AND NORMALLY BIASED INTO FRICTIONAL DRIVING ENGAGEMENT WITH A PINION DRIVE CONNECTED TO THE CLOCKWORKS FOR TIME CONTROLLING THE RATE OF UNWINDING OF THE CLOCKWORKS AND CANCELLATION OF PURCHASED TIME FROM THE METER. A MANUALLY OPERATED WIPE-OFF ACTUATOR DISENGAGES THE WHEEL FROM THE PINION TO RENDER THE PINION FREE-RUNNING ON THE SHAFT AND THEREBY PERMIT RAPID, SUB-   STANTIALLY INSTANTANEOUS UNWINDING OF THE CLOCKWORKS AND CANCELLATION OF THE PURCHASED TIME.

.1. w. VAN HORN ETA!- 3,5 3,433

March 9, 1971 QUICK TIME WIPE-OFF FOR PARKING METER;

2 Sheets-sheaf 1 Filed Oct. 2a, 1968 INVENTORS JOHN W- VAN HORN CHARLES W. HILL JIMMIE CALVIN TEAGUE afiwwmw ATTORNE s s March 9, 1971 .1; WQVAN HORN ETAL 3,568,433

QUICK TIME WIPE-OFF FOR PARKING METERS Filed Oct, 28, 1968 V 4 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS JOHN W. VAN HORN CHARLES W. HILL JIMMIE CALVIN TEAGUE ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office Patented Mar. 9, 1971 U.S. Cl. 58141 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A quick time wipe-off assembly for a coin controlled, parking meter including an escapement wheel axially slidable on a shaft and normally biased into frictional driving engagement with a pinion drive connected to the clockworks for time controlling the rate of unwinding of the clockworks and cancellation of purchased time from the meter. A manually operated wipe-off actuator disengages the wheel from the pinion to render the pinion free-running on the shaft and thereby permit rapid, substantially instantaneous unwinding of the clockworks and cancellation of the purchased time.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is generally concerned with coin controlled, parking meters and more particularly with a quick time wipe-off mechanism for such a meter effective to cancel rapidly any purchased time registered on the parking meter, and return the purchased time indicator to its zero time position.

In coin controlled, manually operated parking meter structures, it is desirable and advantageous to be able to quickly wipe-off or cancel any remaining time on the meter and rapidly return the meter clockworks and the associated time indicator to the zero no-time position. For example, when demonstrating a parking meter before city or municipal authorities in group meetings where various people repeatedly coin test the meter unit, a sales representative must cancel the purchased time from the meter unit to permit repeated testing. In the past this generally had to be accomplished by using a special tool or by manually turning the time rack by hand, which in addition to being a rather awkward procedure, often caused physical injury to the demonstrators hands. This general operation was both clumsy and time consuming and often ineffective in illustrating the merits of the parking meter to city authorities.

Parking meter servicemen have also experienced the need for a simple operating quick time wipe-off mechanism when coin checking the meters both in service in meter controlled parking facilities, as well as in the shop. The previously used wipe-off techniques have been rather cumbersome and time consuming for servicemen and thus have required higher operating and service costs, which of course, decreased the total amount of revenue obtained by municipalities from the parking facilities.

The parking meter is of course a continuing source of revenue for the municipality and to obtain full benefit from the meter it should be provided with a readily accessible and operable time cancellation mechanism so that purchased time on meters governing spaces which have been vacated before expiration of the time can be quickly cancelled to prevent free-loading by other vehicle operators, and thus effectively increase city revenue from the parking spaces available. Otherwise, vehicle operators may shop around for spaces policed by meters having time remaining thereon purchased by the previous vehicle operator, and may park in the space without purchasing any time themselves, and thus deprive the city of anticipatable additional revenue.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the primary object of the invention resides in the provision of a novel time wipe-off or cancellation mechanism for a coin controlled, parking meter which is simple and compact in construction and readily operable to cancel purchased time from the meter.

Another object resides in the provision of a novel time wipe-off or cancellation mechanism for a manual parking meter which is readily operable to quickly cancel purchased time remaining on the meter without requiring the use of specially provided tools or incurring physical injury to an operators hands.

Still another object resides in the provision of a novel manually operated time wipe-off mechanism for a manual parking meter comprising a lever which, when actuated, disengages an escapement Wheel from an escapement pinion to declutch a frictional drive connection between the wheel and pinion and release the pinion for free rotation, thereby permitting the clockworks, including a wound mainspring and its associated main drive gear connected to the escapement pinion through a gear train, to become substantially instantaneously unwound or deenergized and return the time indicator drive connected to the mainspring to its zero set position, thus cancelling any purchased time remaining on the meter.

A further object resides in the provision of a novel simplified, compact quick time wipe-off mechanism for a parking meter comprising an escapement assembly for a clockworks including an escapement pinion connected through a gear assembly to a main gear drive operated by a mainspring, an escapement wheel normally biased into frictional clutching drive engagement with the escapement pinion by a spring mounted on an escapement shaft between the wheel and a washer press fitted on the shaft, the normal rotation of the escapement wheel controlled by a conventional balance wheel and escapement lever arrangement to time-control the unwinding or de-energization of the mainspring through the movement of the escapement pinion and associated gear mechanism, and thereby control the time movement of the time indicator. A push-button operated lever is actuatable to move the escapement wheel out of frictional clutching engagement with the escapement pinion, rendering the pinion free running on the shaft thereby permitting a rapid unwinding and de-energization of the mainspring independent of the escapement assembly and balance wheel to return the time indicator to its zero-set position and thereby cancel any time remaining on the meter.

A still further object resides in the provision of a novel simplified escapement mechanism for a parking meter which comprises an escapement shaft having a pair of spaced washers press fitted thereon, an escapement pinion axially and rotatably movable on the shaft and end opposed to one of the washers, an escapement wheel slidable on the shaft and normally biased into frictional clutching drive engagement with the escapement pinion by a spring connected between opposed ends of the wheel and other washer, with the sole driving connection between the escapement wheel and the escapement pinion being established by the frictional clutching engagement resulting from the bias of the spring. A pushbutton operated lever readily disengages the escapement wheel from the escapement pinion to permit free rotation of the pinion on the shaft independent of the wheel and the timed escapement mechanism which controls movement of the wheel, thereby permitting the clockworks, including a wound and energized mainspring whose unwinding and de-energization is normally time controlled through the movement of the escapement pinion, to be quickly unwound and de-energized due to the freely rotatable condition of the escapement pinion when it is disengaged from the escapement wheel, thereby rapidly returning the time indicator to its zero set position and cancelling any remaining purchased time from the meter.

Still another object resides in the provision of a novel wipe-off time mechanism described in the above objects in which the gear train connecting the mainspring shaft to the escapemnet pinion acts as a governor for the unwinding of the mainspring when the escapement pinion is disengaged from the escapement wheel and becomes a free running pinion, thereby preventing the mainspring from unwinding too rapidly and damaging the internal working parts of the mainspring and working structure.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a reading of the below detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention and from an analysis of the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partially fragmented back elevation view part of a coin controlled, manually operated parking meter illustrating the time indicating mechanism and a dust cover within which the clockworks including a mainspring gear train, and novel escapement and time wipe-off mechanism of the invention are mounted;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1 illustrating the clockworks, escapement and time wipe-off assembly within the dust cover and showing the drive connection between the mainspring hub shaft and time indicator gear assembly by which the mainspring unwinding drives the indicator lever to indicate the amount of purchased time remaining on the meter;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1 illustrating the manner in which the escapement wheel and escapement pinion are mounted for frictional drive engagement on the escapement shaft and also showing the time wipe-E pushbutton and operating lever by which the drive connection is interrupted to permit the escapement pinion to run freely and thereby allow the clockworks including the mainspring to unwind, with the illustrated gear train acting as a governor for the rate at which the mainspring unwinds',

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 3 illustrating the oscillating escapement lever connection between the escapement wheel and the oscillating balance wheel by which the unwinding or de-energizing of the mainspring is time controlled through the move ment of the escapement wheel and pinion; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view illustrating the position in which the wipe-01f lever disengages the escapement wheel from the escapement pinion, thereby permitting the clockworks to unwind rapidly and cancel the purchased time from the meter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED 'EMBODIMENT With reference now to the drawings, particularly FIGS. 1 and 2 wherein the invention is illustrated applied to a manually operated parking meter, the coin-controlled manually operated parking meter comprises mounting base plate 10, time indicating scale 12 (e.g. two hours),

4 indicating pointer 14 mounted on shaft 16 driven by indicator gear 18, which is driven through idler gear 20 mounted on idler shaft 22 by hub gear 24 mounted on hub shaft 25 (see FIG. 2).

Dust cover 26 screwed to the back base plate 10 and sealed thereagainst by O-ring 27 encloses a unitarily assembled clockworks, escapement, and time wipe-off structure 28 comprising spaced apart front and rear plates 30 and 32, respectively, connected together and to base plate 10 by rods 34, the plates 30 and 32 forming a housing supporting clockworks 35, escapement mechanism 42, and time wipe-01f actuator mechanism 43.

Clockworks 35 driving hub shaft 25 and controlling the timed movement of indicator lever 14 includes mainspring 36 having one end fixed to pin 37 extending between plates 30 and 32 and its other end fixed to hub shaft 25 which extends through base plate 10, front plate 30 and into bearing assembly 38 connected to the rear plate 3-2. Main gear 40 is mounted on hub shaft 25 for rotation thereby when mainspring 36 is either wound or unwound.

Mainspring 36 may be wound or energized through hub shaft 25 by any conventional coin controlled coin activated lever mechanism and is particularly adapted to be wound by the mechanism illustrated in copending application Ser. No. 691,814, now Pat. No. 3,506,102 which is assigned to the assignee of this invention. Similarly, the complete meter structure of the invention will ordinarily include other features not illustrated in the drawings, such as violation flags, coin operating mechanisms, a time rack and operating lever, etc., and similar structures present in the meter illustrated in Ser. No. 691,814.

Clockworks 35 includes intermediate gear train 44 by which it is connected to escapement mechanism 42 which time controls the rate at which spring 36 is unwound to cancel purchased time from the meter. Gear train 44 includes pinion gear 46 meshed with main gear 40 and fixed on rotating shaft 48 carrying fixed gear 50 meshed with pinion 52 fixed on rotating shaft '54- carrying fixed gear 56 meshed with pinion gear 58 fixed on rotating shaft 60 carrying fixed gear 62 meshed with escapement pinion gear 64 which is axially movable and freely rotatable on escapement shaft 66.

Escapement mechanism 42 comprises journalled shat: 66 having spaced apart washers 68 and 74 press fitted thereon, escapement wheel 70 axially slidably mounted on the shaft 66 and normally urged into frictional driving engagement with pinion 64 by coil spring 72 positioned between the opposed ends of wheel 70 and washer 74 pressed fitted on shaft 66, the time control assembly 75 which time controls rotation of escapement wheel 70 in the time cancellation direction (counterclockwise rotation as shown in FIG. 4). During normal time controlled operation, spring 72 compressed between wheel 70 and washer 74 biases wheel 70 into frictional drive engagement with pinion 64 and also urges opposed ends of pinion 64 and washer 68 into frictional driving engagement. Thus, during normal operation, shaft 66, washers 6'8 and 74, spring 72, escapement wheel 70, and pinion 64 rotate together in a time controlled manner.

Referring to FIG. 4, time control assembly 75 includes escapement lever 76 fixed on shaft 78 journalled in plates 30 and 32. The lever 76 comprises a generally L-shaped portion the arms of which include respective escapement pins 80 which alternately engage the teeth of escapement wheel 70 and a third arm having forked groove 82 the sides of which are alternately engaged by pin 84 on balance wheel 86 fixed on journalled shaft 87, the oscillating movement of wheel 86 being controlled by a hairspring (not shown) in conventional manner. Oscillation of balance wheel 86 and lever 76 provide a time controlled counterclockwise rotation of escapement wheel 70 and, through the frictional drive connection between wheel 70 and escapement pinion '64, provide a slow timed unwinding of clockworks 35 and corresponding movement of time indicator 14 to cancel the purchased time from the parking meter.

The time wipe-ofl? actuator assembly 43' comprises spring lever 88 connected by screw 90 to back plate 32 and having a U-shaped end 92 extending over the top of plate 32 and terminating in flange 94 provided with end recess 96 within which escapement pinion 64 is normally positioned. Pushbutton 98 slidably mounted within dust cover 26 engages spring lever 88 upon depression thereof and, as shown in FIG. 5, biases lever 88 and end flange 9'4 inwardly to engage escapement wheel 70 and move wheel 70 from its normal frictional drive engaging position shown in broken lines to its non-driving position shown in full lines thereby causing escapement pinion 64 to become a free running gear on shaft 66 and permitting clockworks 35 including mainspring 36 to rapidly unwind and move time indicator 14 to its zero time position, thereby cancelling the purchased time from the parking meter. When pushbutton 98 is released spring lever 88 returns to its normal position shown in FIG. 3 and spring 72 biases escapement wheel 70 back into frictional drive engagement with pinion 64 with opposed ends of pinion 64 and washer -68 frictionally engaging each other to thereby place the clockworks under control of escapement mechanism 42 for normal timed operation when another coin is inserted to again purchase time.

It should be noted that during the quick time wipe-off operation, when the respective elements are in their full line position of FIG. and escapement pinion 64 operates as a free running gear on shaft 66, the pinion 64 and gear train 44 function as a governor for the mainspring wind-down thereby preventing the mainspring from unwinding at a too rapid rate and damaging the spring and associated clockworks mechanism.

Thus, it is apparent that the escapement mechanism and associated time wipe-off assembly is simple and compact in construction and readily manually operable to disengage escapement wheel 70 from pinion 64 thereby permitting clockworks 35, including mainspring 36, to rapidly unwind and cancel the purchased time from the parking meter. Since the sole driving connection between escapement wheel 70 and pinion 64 is accomplished merely by frictional clutching engagement therebetween, the time remaining on the meter is wiped off by cancelled quickly by disengaging the respective parts through actuation of pushbutton 98' and spring lever 88.

Hence, during demonstration of the meter by sales representatives or during coin checking operation by servicemen, the operation of the meter may be quickly effected a number of times, since the registered time may be quickly cancelled to permit repeated operation.

Similarly, in city parking areas, an authorized attendant may quickly erase purchased time which has not been utilized by the purchaser, thereby eliminating the practice of freeloading and effectively increasing the amount of revenue derived by the public authorities from the parking facilities.

Furthermore, because the respective cooperating clockworks 35, escapement mechanism 42, and time wipe-01f actuator assembly 43 are assembled as a unitary compact structure 28, the entire structure 28 may be readily substituted into existing parking meters without requiring an extensive meter redesign to thereby provide existing meters with the novel time wipe-off feature of the invention.

It is of course understood that the meter structure illustrated the drawing is only fragmentarily represented and in an actual meter installation the meter assemblage will be far more comprehensive and complete similar to that illustrated in copending application Ser. No. 691,814, now Pat. No. 3,506,102. It is also understood that in an actual meter installation an outer housing 100 of the type shown in my aforesaid application will completely enclose the dust cover and pushbutton 98 and prevent unauthorized cancellation of the time on a meter. Outer housing may be provided with a suitable tool passage 101 whereby only authorized personnel provided with a special tool 102 may gain access to the pushbutton to cancel the time remaining on the meter.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit of essential characteristics thereof. The persent embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In a parking meter having a clockworks drive connected to a pointer hand cooperating with a time scale for registering purchased time and coin conditioned Winding means for winding said clockworks to energize said clockworks to dispense respective increments of purchased time in accord with the value of the conditioning coin; a quick time wipe off comprising escapement shaft means normally operative to effect timed deenergization of said clockworks, said escapement shaft means comprising a journalled shaft, a first washer press fitted thereon inwardly of one end, a clockworks driven pinion gear slidably journalled on said shaft in end opposed relation to said first Washer, an escapement wheel slidably journalled on said shaft in end opposed relation to said pinion gear, a second washer press fitted on said shaft in axially spaced relation to said escapement wheel, and coil spring means interposed between the opposing faces of said escapement wheel and said second washer to normally frictionally claimp said pinion gear against said first washer and said escapement Wheel against said pinion gear to frictionally connect the components of said escapement shaft means for unitary rotation; and manually actuatable means mounted on said clockworks with a portion disposed adjacent said escapement wheel for selective movement to shift said escapement wheel to a non-driving position with respect to said clockworks whereby the clockworks is released for instantaneous deenergization.

2. In a parking meter; a housing; a clockworks mounted on said housing and drive connected to time indicating means for indicating the time registered on said meter When said clockworks is energized; an escapement mechanism mounted on said housing and drive connected to said clockworks to time control the rate at which said clockworks is deenergized and the time is cancelled from said meter, said escapement mechanism comprising a shaft rotatably supported on said housing and having a pair of spaced washers fixed thereon, an escapement wheel slidably mounted on said shaft and movable between a first clockworks driving position and a second non-driving position, a clockworks driven escapement pinion axially movably and rotatably mounted on said shaft with one end opposite one of said washers and the other end opposite an end of said escapement Wheel, and spring means positioned between and engaging the other end of said escapement wheel and said other washer, said shaft, pinion, wheel, washers and spring rotating together when said wheel is in said driving position and said pinion freely rotating on said shaft when said wheel is moved to said non-driving positon; and actuator means operative to move said wheel to said non-driving position to enable said clookworks to deenergize rapidly independently of said escapement Wheel and thereby cancel the time registered on said meter.

3. A unitary assembled structure for a parking meter comprising a housing; clockworks mounted on said housing and adapted to be drive connected to energizing means and a time registering device on the meter; an escapement mechanism mounted on said housing to time-control the deenergization of said clockworks and comprising a shaft, spaced Washers press fitted on said shaft, a clockworks driven pinion axially movably and rotatably mounted on said shaft adjacent one of said washers, an escapement wheel axially slidably movable on said shaft from a first position in driving engagement with said pinion gear to a second non-driving position, said wheel being normally'biased into said first position by a spring positioned between opposed ends of said wheel and the other of said washers to cause frictional driving engagement between opposed ends of said wheel and pinion and opposed ends of said pinion and one washer, and actuator means on said housing for moving said wheel from said first to said second position to substantially instantaneously deenergize said clockworks and thereby cancel registered time on the meter.

4. A par-king meter according to claim 2, said actuator means comprising manually operated lever means mounted on said housing and movable to disengage said wheel from said pinion to render said pinion freely rotatable on said shaft.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner E. C. SIMMONS, Assistant Examiner I US. Cl. X.R. 58-116, 142

7/1964 Anglim et a1. 58142 

